The Awakening: Vampire Huntress Legends

There is a vampire war brewing in the underworld and at the center of it all is Damali Richards, spoken word artist and Vampire Huntress. But she is not just any Vampire Huntress, she is the millenium Neteru: a woman so potentially powerful that the vampire world is about to invoke a bloody battle that threatens to spill over onto her streets in order to posses her. It's just a matter of who will get to her first.

Blood Vow: Black Dagger Legacy, Book 2

The Black Dagger Brotherhood continues to train the best of the best to join them in the deadly battle against the Lessening Society. Among the new recruits, Axe proves to be a cunning and vicious fighter - and also a loner isolated because of personal tragedy. When an aristocratic female needs a bodyguard, Axe takes the job, though he's unprepared for the animal attraction that flares between him and the one he is sworn to protect.

Shadowshaper

Paint a mural. Start a battle. Change the world. Sierra Santiago planned an easy summer of making art and hanging out with her friends. But then a corpse crashes the first party of the season. Her strokeridden grandfather starts apologizing over and over. And when the murals in her neighborhood begin to weep real tears... Well, something more sinister than the usual Brooklyn ruckus is going on.

Shadow Blade: Shadowchasers, Book 1

For Kira Solomon, normal was never an option. Kira's day job is as an antiquities expert, but her true calling is as a Shadowchaser. Trained from youth to be one of the most lethal Chasers in existence, Kira serves the Gilead Commission, dispatching the Fallen who sow discord and chaos. Of course, sometimes Gilead bureaucracy is as much a thorn in her side as anything the Fallen can muster against her. Right now, though, she's got a bigger problem....

Dark Lover: The Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 1

The vampire Darius fears for the life of his half-breed daughter, who is unaware of her unusual destiny. To oversee her transformation, Darius seeks help from Wrath, a dangerous loner and the world's only purebred vampire.

Binti

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs. Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares.

Secrets of a Side Bitch

Meet Omari, a gorgeous, hardworking 28-year-old man from the South Side of Chicago. No matter how hard he works at his job at UPS, it is never enough to take care of himself and his long-term girlfriend. After continuous pressure from his older cousin, Ching, Omari finally trades in busting his ass for working under Ching, hustling three major blocks on the West Side. All is good as Omari juggles work and the drug game - until Ching involves him in the murder of someone who ends up being the governor's nephew.

Curse on the Land: Soulwood, Book 2

Before Nell Ingram met skinwalker Jane Yellowrock, she had no one to rely on, finding strength only in her arcane connection to the dark woods around her. But now she has friends in the newly formed PsyLED team to keep her grounded - even if being part of the agency responsible for policing paranormals comes with dangers of its own.

The Book of Harlan

The Book of Harlan opens with the courtship of Harlan's parents and his 1917 birth in Macon, Georgia. After his prominent minister grandfather dies, Harlan and his parents move to Harlem, where he eventually becomes a professional musician. When Harlan and his best friend, trumpeter Lizard Robbins, are invited to perform at a popular cabaret in the Parisian enclave of Montmartre - affectionately referred to as "the Harlem of Paris" by black American musicians - Harlan jumps at the opportunity, convincing Lizard to join him.

The Book of Phoenix

Phoenix was grown and raised among other genetic experiments in New York's Tower 7. She is an "accelerated woman" - only two years old but with the body and mind of an adult, Phoenix's abilities far exceed those of a normal human. Still innocent and inexperienced in the ways of the world, she is content living in her room speed reading ebooks, running on her treadmill, and basking in the love of Saeed, another biologically altered human of Tower 7.

Wild Seed

Doro is an entity who changes bodies like clothes, killing his hosts by reflexor design. He fears no one...until he meets Anyanwu. Anyanwu is a shapeshifter who can absorb bullets and heal with a kiss and savage anyone who threatens her. Together they weave a pattern of destiny unimaginable to mortals.

Parable of the Sower

God is change. That is the central truth of the Earthseed movement, whose unlikely prophet is 18-year-old Lauren Olamina. The young woman's diary entries tell the story of her life amid a violent 21st-century hell of walled neighborhoods and drug-crazed pyromaniacs - and reveal her evolving Earthseed philosophy. Against a backdrop of horror emerges a message of hope: if we are willing to embrace divine change, we will survive to fulfill our destiny among the stars.

Defy the Dawn: Midnight Breed Series, Book 14

An immortal warrior must decide between loyalty to his people and desire for a beautiful Breed female determined to bring a powerful enemy to justice at any cost in this new novel in best-selling author Lara Adrian's Midnight Breed vampire romance series.

Archangel's Heart: Guild Hunter Series, Book 9

One of the most vicious archangels in the world has disappeared. No one knows if Lijuan is dead or has chosen to sleep the long sleep of an immortal. But with her lands falling into chaos under a rising tide of vampiric bloodlust, a mysterious and ancient order of angels known as the Luminata calls the entire Cadre together to discuss the fate of her territory. Accompanying her archangelic lover Raphael to the Luminata compound, guild hunter-turned-angel Elena senses that all is not as it seems.

Born of Legend: The League, Book 9

Hunted. Hated. Betrayed. Dagger Ixur is on the run for his life. As one of the most recognizable members of his royal house, he has a bounty on his head that guarantees him no quarter from any friend or even family. But surrender isn't in him. He will fight to the bitter end. A resolve that is sorely tested when he narrowly escapes a trap that leaves him severely wounded. With what he believes is his dying breath, he saves a boy born to an extinct race from a group out to enslave the kid for his legendary abilities.

Dire Straits: Bo Blackman, Book 1

Bo Blackman is a rookie private investigator working for the London based firm of Dire Straits. She doesn't often get triber-based assignments, which is just as well. Vampires and daemons don't interest her as much as humans do... However, when she has to serve a summons on a dodgy daemon called Devlin O'Shea and she ends up saving his life instead of being framed for his murder, her life takes a shocking turn for the worse.

Honour Bound: Highland Magic, Book 2

Integrity Taylor should have been a Clan princess. Instead she's lived a life on the very periphery of society. However, now that she's learned more about her heritage and the magic that she's capable of wielding, she's not going to hide in the shadows any longer. The once-in-a-generation Sidhe Games are going to provide the perfect opportunity for her to win back her birthright, and the fact that she'll be going head-to-head, toe-to-toe, and mouth-to-mouth with golden-haired Byron Moncrieffe might just be the icing on the cake.

Bitten: Women of the Otherworld, Book 1

Young, beautiful, and successful, Elena Michaels seems to have it all. Her happy, organized life follows a predictable pattern: filing stories for her job as a journalist, working out at the gym, living with her architect boyfriend, and lunching with her girlfriends from the office. And once a week, in the dead of night, she streaks through a downtown ravine, naked and furred, tearing at the throats of her animal prey. Elena Michaels is a werewolf.

Blood Kiss: Black Dagger Legacy, Book 1

The legacy of the Black Dagger Brotherhood continues in a spin-off series. Paradise, blooded daughter of the king's first advisor, is ready to break free from the restrictive life of an aristocratic female. Her strategy? Join the Black Dagger Brotherhood's training center program and learn to fight for herself, think for herself...be herself. It's a good plan until everything goes wrong.

The Sweetest Burn: A Broken Destiny Novel

Conquering a supernatural realm turned out to be easier than getting over a broken heart. But her initial victory has made Ivy a target for revenge, forcing her to reunite with the dangerous - and dangerously sexy - Adrian. Ivy isn't sure which will be harder: finding the hallowed weapon that will repair the crumbling walls between the demon and human realms or resisting Adrian, who's decided that, come hell or high water, he will make Ivy his.

Infinity: Chronicles of Nick

At 14, Nick Gautier thinks he knows everything about the world around him. Streetwise, tough and savvy, his quick sarcasm is the stuff of legends - until the night when his best friends try to kill him. Saved by a mysterious warrior who has more fighting skills than Chuck Norris, Nick is sucked into the realm of the Dark-Hunters: immortal vampire slayers who risk everything to save humanity.

Night Pleasures: A Dark-Hunter Novel

In Night Pleasures, Kyrian of Thrace - an immortal who protects humans from vampires - wakes up one morning handcuffed to the one thing that can scare him: a conservative woman in a button-down shirt. But Amanda Devereaux turns out to be his perfect partner for hunting down a deadly foe, and for helping him to regain his soul and learn that love doesn't have to bite.

Publisher's Summary

All Damali Richards ever wanted to do was create music and bring it to the people. Now she is a spoken-word artist and the top act for Warriors of Light Records. But come nightfall, she hunts vampires and demons - predators that people tend to dismiss as myth or fantasy. But Damali and her Guardian team cannot afford such delusions, especially now, when a group of rogue vampires have been killing the artists of Warriors of Light and their rival, Blood Music.

Strange attacks have also erupted within the club drug-trafficking network and drawn the attention of the police. These killings are a bit out of the ordinary, even for vampires. No neat puncture marks in the neck to show where the life's blood has been sucked from the body. These bodies have been mutilated beyond recognition, indicating a blood lust and thirst for destruction that surpasses any Damali has encountered before.

Damali soon discovers that behind these brutal murders is the most powerful vampire she has ever met, and this seductive beast is coming for her next. But his unholy intentions have also drawn the focus of other hellish dark forces. Soon Damali finds herself being pulled deeper into the vast and horrifying vampire world.

This is a great story. It is not loaded with sex and all of the vampires aren't just humans with a little bite problem. Minion only scratches the surface of a story and vampires aren't even the tip of the iceberg.

I only have one problem with the audiobook (note the 3 star rating instead of 4). I have read most of the series and have a definite of idea of what a young black spoken word performer from Louisiana should sound like.

After having listened to the Anita Blake and Sookie Stackhouse series' along with Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series, I've come to appreciate how important the correct narrator is to the story. I think Ms. Huber does a pretty good job of reading, for the most part, but too many times she sounds like a suburban house wife when 3/4 of the characters in the story are from inner city Louisiana and Southern California. This story needs someone that sounds more urban so that when a character says "...lost his natural black mind..." it sounds authentic and not as if the narrator studied urban lingo a few hours before hand.

I like the story line but the narrator sounds out of place. Like the cliche white director feeding his black actors lines, the way he thinks urban black people should sound, know what I mean? If not, refer to Robert Townsend's first movie, Hollywood Shuffle (The Black Actor's School).
My family is from the 9th ward of New Orleans but I was born in L.A., I couldn't take the storyline seriously after hearing about 3 slang lines the way I know them to sound, murdered.
Saying all of that I still love the series and I am looking forward to more audiobook version of this series.

I absolutely LOVE this book and the Vampire Huntress Legend series and was really excited about getting this audio book, but was really disappointed upon downloading. The narrator's voice could not be more wrong for this book. The personalities in this book are rich, urban, and culturally diverse, which is not what you get from the narrator - there are folks who are asian, black, latin, white, american, european, west indian, south american, etc. I was especially disappointed in the main character Damali, who is a young black educated female from the hood who is a soulful singer. Instead of hearing a voice that matches who she is, the narrator makes Damali sound like a whiney spoiled white valley girl who couldn't sing a soulful note in anyone's dreams. Such a fantastic book deserves a better voice casting & I would like to hear someone else do the voices for the other books.

Took me a little while to get into this book but once I did I was hooked and couldn't wait to listen to the second book in the series. Different perspective on vampires (these are really nasty!) A very slight hint of a romance story going on but it's mainly a vampire huntress and her guardian team against the forces of evil.

Love fantasy books, usually with a strong female character. I also enjoyed just about anything from J.D Robb I am a fan of mysteries as well. I also enjoy funny and quirky novels anything from Molly Harper is a winner in my book. Since listening to audio books is important to me while I travel I also follow certain narrators as well.

Wow...I listen to audiobooks all the time and this is the first time that I could not finish the book. The narrator was horrible. I know the author is great and the books great, but this narrator made me sick. I wasted money on this for sure.

I am a big fan of the late Leslie Esdaile, and the only reason I never read her vampire huntress series is I thought they were for teen readers. After her passing, I decided I wanted to read all of her books. This is a very good story, but the narrator is just wrong. Don’t get me wrong, she reads/narrates very well, but not for an African American story-line. I was constantly reminded that this was a white woman trying to sound black. I finally got use to it, but I think I will read (not listen) to the rest of the series. Overall, still a good story.

I read "Minion" and was looking forward to having the story come alive as an audio book. I enjoyed the story very much, but thought the reading lacked the rhythm of the written book.

The book was written by an ethnic author in ethnic street slang, and I didn't think Hillary Huber captured the cadence of the book in her performance. I thought her performance was a bit lackluster.

What did you like best about this story?

I like the way L.A. Banks weaves the light and dark aspects of our European religion and mythology into a credible urban fantasy world.

Would you be willing to try another one of Hillary Huber’s performances?

I would be willing to listen to Hillary Huber in an audio book by a different author, but I think she missed the mark with "Minion".

Any additional comments?

I would love to hear this series read by someone who understands and can capture the street language of the West Coast rap scene. Damali sounds like an east LA Valley Girl, not an African-American rap....er, Spoken Word Artist in this version and that is not how I heard Damali in my mind when I first read "Minion".